IF there is a moment in John Parry’s golfing career he has been waiting for then this week, more specifically today, is probably it. Despite boasting more than 90 appearances on the European Tour, including one memorable win, there has been one goal lacking.

Parry, on the main Tour again this season after successfully negotiating a year back on the Challenge Tour, has spent the past four days in Pennsylvania gearing up for his first outing in a major.

When he tees off alongside Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg and Japan’s Yui Ueda at Merion tonight in the first round of the US Open, he is expecting it to feel every bit as special as he has always imagined. Even more so after talking to someone who has experienced the tournament at first hand.

“I was supposed to have been playing in Austria last week, but after qualifying I decided to give it a miss and fly out to Philadelphia last Saturday to give me as much time to adapt to the conditions as possible,” said Parry.

“It has felt completely different in the build up to this event. I know I have played in plenty of Tour events, but because it is a major it does have a different buzz about it. As soon as I stepped on to the plane last Saturday that buzz hit me.

“I have spoken to a few of the lads who have played in both the US Open and the British Open – like Lee Slattery – and they reckon the whole experience is actually better to play the US Open.

“The British Open obviously has the history, the prestige attached to it because it’s the oldest, but it’s said that the whole US Open experience is amazing.

The galleries, the golf, the courses … I can’t wait.”

Slattery missed the cut when he appeared at Pebble Beach three years ago and Parry knows how difficult it will be to make the weekend’s play at Merion this time around.

To have successfully negotiated international qualifying from Walton Heath two-and-a-half weeks ago with a three-under total after 36 holes, though, has continued his recent resurgence.

After graduating through to the European Tour in 2010, winning the Vivendi Trophy and a cheque of around £200,000 helped him to secure his card for the following year.

A frustrating 2011, however, led to him dropping back to the Challenge Tour last year, when he showed tremendous strength of character to get his career back on track.

Despite finishing 49th in the Order of Merit, he reclaimed his full Tour credentials by finishing first at Tour School to step back on to the elite scene.

He has finished in the money five times this year, while his tied 14th place at the Madeira Islands Open provided him with a further reminder that he can mix it on the European Tour.

“My rookie year went pretty well, but I had a good finish and that helped me, but then my second year I just couldn’t get my game going and I struggled a bit with a few things.

“It’s a complete change when you drop back to the Challenge Tour, it’s a harder to come to terms with because everything is different. The travelling, the spotlight, everything.

Hopefully being back on the main Tour and playing at the US Open will be the start of better things to come.”

Given that Parry does not turn 27 until November, he is still young in terms of professional golf and the experience of dipping in and out of the European Tour should help him to move forward.

He puts much of his renaissance down to tinkering with a few things, both physically and mentally, and the young man from Knaresborough playing out of Harrogate Golf Club feels stronger than he has at any other time in his career.

“I still have six to ten years before I reach my peak if you think about when many golfers actually reach their peak,” he said. “I know I still have a lot to learn but the last few years have really helped me find out a few things. The experience of playing in a major like the US Open should help me too.

“If you think about it, so many golfers don’t get the chance of that. Because I am I would hope that the experience of the event, the extra pressures, will be good to take with me in to other tournaments.

“I already feel a lot fitter this year than I have in the past because I have been doing different things with my coach. Mark Moore from Flaxby, the training programme has made me feel stronger.”

And when he heads out on to the first today, Parry will be drawing on the words of a psychologist, Susan McGregor. “One of the big things in golf is to be a consistent golfer, but it’s probably more important in golf to be more consistent in the mind,” said Parry.

“That’s one of the things Susan has got me working on. I will be thinking about such things at the US Open, although the whole experience will be different to usual.

“I want to do well, of course I do because it can help me in the Race to Dubai rankings, but it’s more about the experience this time rather than my performance.

I just want to enjoy it and see what it is all about.

“I will be looking at how the top players all handle the occasion, I don’t want my first US Open to be last. I want this to be the first of many majors I play.”